The Los Angeles Times reports that pop singer Whitney Houston died Saturday in Beverly Hills at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Authorities are trying to determine a cause of death.

Houston, 48, was in the Los Angeles area for a musical tribute to music executive Clive Davis and had performed and spoken to reporters earlier in the week. Clive Davis was the person responsible for launching Houston’s singing career. Appearing on Good Morning America, Davis once said of Houston:

“The time that I first saw her singing in her mother’s act in a club … it was such a stunning impact. To hear this young girl breathe such fire into this song. I mean, it really sent the proverbial tingles up my spine.’

Record studio executive Clive Davis poses with singer Whitney Houston whom he discovered singing in a nightclub with her mother.

Whitney’s publicist Kristen Foster told the Associated Press on Saturday that Houston had died but did not provide further details.

The Daily Mail Online reported inaccurately that Whitney was found by her on-off boyfriend Ray J in her hotel room.

It is now believed that Ms. Houston was found by her bodyguard, “Ray.” The Beverly Hills Police Department say that at 3:43 p.m. (Pacific Standard Time), a 911 call was placed from the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The police were on the scene in two minutes. When they got to Ms. Houston’s room on the 4th floor, hotel staff were attempting CPR on her lifeless body. At 3:55 p.m., the singer was pronounced dead. As of 6:10 p.m. PST, Ms. Houston’s body was still in the room. (Radar Online)

Preliminary findings suggest no foul play.

Oddly enough, the Clive Davis preGrammy Award party – the biggest black tie event associated with the record awards ceremony – went on as planned, just hours after Houston’s death. The party was held in the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the same hotel where Houston was found unconscious. It was an eerie incongruency, stars stepping out of limos for the party as Houston fans arrived in tears to lay bouquets of flowers in memory.

Shocked to learn of Whitney Houston’s tragic death, fans flock to the scene at the Beverly Hilton, where they lay flowers and light candles in tribute to the fallen singer

Readers: For more on Whitney Houston here on Lisa’s History Room, click here.

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of Michael Jackson‘s death. In her only TV interview, mother Katherine Jackson reminisced on “Dateline” about her internationally famous son.

She remembered the day she realized Michael had talent:

We had a Maytag washing machine, and it was rickety when the agitators would go, you know how they go [imitates sound]. This one was so rickety that it had a [imitates sound] kinda like that, and Michael was there on the floor wearing his diaper and his little bottle, and he just was dancing to the rhythm of what the washing machine made.”

Katherine Jackson went on to say that she had never met Debbie Rowe, the biological mother of Michael’s two oldest children, Prince (b. 1997) and Paris (b. 1998), until Michael’s death. Katherine, who raised nine children, is now mother to Paris, Prince, and Blanket, Michael’s third child, born in 2002.

Katherine didn’t always agree with the way Michael (1958-1009) was raising his children:

I never did like the fact that he put, um, scarfs or veils over their faces….”

Katherine says the children are doing fine except that they have no friends. Prince, 13, Paris, 12, and Blanket, 8, have previously been tutored at home. Katherine is trying to give her grandchildren a more normal upbringing, free of the bizarre restrictions imposed by their father. In September, the three children will be enrolling in school for the first time in their lives, reports the Daily Mail. Below are pictures of the children enjoying their first carefree Hawaiian vacation a few days before returning to the continental U.S. for a Gary, Indiana, hometown memorial for their father.

Michael Jackson is seen visiting burn victim Keith Perry in the burn center at Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, Calif., on Feb. 4, 1984. The pop star was recuperating in the hospital after suffering from a burn to his head while filming a commercial for Pepsi-Cola. (Lisa's History Room)

Michael Jackson's "Blue Eye" - a never-before-seen photograph of Michael Jackson that was considered but rejected as the cover for Jackson's 2001 album "Invincible" (Lisa's History Room)

“As the one-year anniversary of Michael Jackson‘s death approaches, a very special picture of the pop star will be up for grabs at a memorabilia auction to take place in December, reports The Daily Mail.

The portrait, taken in 1999, is an uncommonly subdued shot of the late King of Pop, who was as known for his extravagance as he was for his music.

Titled “Michael Jackson’s Blue Eye,” the photo features Jackson dressed in a black suit jacket with small mirrors scattered across his chest. His eyes are closed, with one covered with a brilliant patch of blue makeup. His hair is pulled back behind his head, and the makeup makes the singer appear healthy and vibrant.

The portrait is a stark contrast from the image of a painfully skinny Jackson most commonly associate with his death, and serves as a reminder of Jackson’s enduring appeal as a larger-than-life figure.

The portrait was reportedly shot by then-23-year-old French photographer Arno Bani, who told the paper that Jackson was a fan of his fashion photography and commissioned him for the shoot.

The portrait was on the short list to make the cover of Jackson’s 2001 album, “Invincible” (his final studio album), but ultimately lost out to a similarly themed (but less eerie) Warhol-esque photo of Jackson’s face.

The portrait’s unveiling comes amid renewed insistence from Jackson’s family that his death was no accident. According to Us Weekly, Jackson expressed concerns to his mother, Katherine, that people “wanted him dead.”

“He would always say that. For him to say that, he must have known something,” said Katherine, who appears on a “Dateline” special this Friday titled “Michael Jackson: A Mother’s Love.”

The “Blue Eye” portrait, along with 11 other unpublished shots of Jackson and 50 contact boards, will be put up for bidding by auctioneers Pierre Berge & Associates in December.”

Busted: Statue’s a Dead Ringer for Jacko

The Pharaoh of Pop doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as King of Pop, but visitors to Chicago’s Field Museum could swear that’s Jacko’s face on a 3,000-year-old Egyptian bust.

The spitting image limestone sculpture has been on display at the museum since 1988, but recently started drawing attention because of its likeness to Jacko — complete with disfigured nose.

Unfortunately the bust, which was carved sometime between 1550 B.C. and 1050 B.C., is of a woman and MJ likely never had the chance to see the statuette.

“I have no idea whether Jackson ever visited the museum,” a Field spokesperson said to the Sun-Times‘ Michael Sneed. “But the similarity between the limestone statue of a woman – which is about 3,000 years old — and Jackson is astounding.”

Interestingly, Jackson cast himself as an interloper in ancient Egypt in his video for “Remember the Time,” so maybe he sensed some Egyptian roots

Michael Jackson unveiled his moonwalk dance on March 25, 1983, when he performed his hit song, "Billie Jean," on the TV special, Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever

I was 29 years old when Michael Jackson and his brothers blew through Texas with their 1984 summer Victory Tour. It was July. I was a fifth-grade school teacher during the regular year. During the summer I was waiting tables at the Night Hawk Steakhouse. Michael Jackson’s record-setting album and video, “Thriller,” was a huge hit.

On Fridays during the school year, I gave my students a treat. At lunchtime, I ordered out for pizza. Then I rolled a TV on a tall stand into my classroom, turned out the lights, shut the blinds, and showed my students the “Thriller” video. We got up out of our chairs and danced. Michael Jackson gave us the chills. We just couldn’t get enough of his energy.

Back to the Victory Tour. It was July 15, 1984 – a Sunday – and I’d just finished my wait shift at the Night Hawk. I clocked out then jumped into my un-air-conditioned Honda and headed South to my apartment. I turned on the radio. The announcer was talking about how exciting the Victory Tour was. Michael Jackson was in Dallas! He had performed Friday and Saturday nights. He was to perform just one more night at Texas Stadium before continuing on his tour. Hasting’s on the Drag across from U.T. still had tickets.

I exited IH 35 and headed straight to Hastings, bought a ticket, raced home, changed clothes, and hit IH 35 for Dallas. When I got there, I realized what a crummy seat I had. The concert started and the lights went down real low, low enough, I discovered, for me to jump over a concrete wall, hunker down, and slither all the way down to the wheelchair section at the front of the stage undetected. A mother sitting in a front row seat gestured to me to come over. She was holding a child in her arms and offered me the empty seat to her right. I took it. I watched the show from a front row seat.

The show was great. Michael Jackson performed all the songs from the tour, but what I most remember was watching him moondance to “Billie Jean.” Wow. He didn’t sing “Thriller,” which confused me at the time. Now I understand that he didn’t think the choreography translated well into a stage song.

Curtis Jerome Haynes

On a previous post, I’ve written about Marcel Marceau‘s influence on Michael Jackson’s moonwalk (“Michael Jackson and the Moonwalk“). Here’s a video sent to me via an old friend, musician Curtis Jerome Haynes, showing the origins of the moonwalk. Some of the “Origins of the Moonwalk” dancers featured in the video are Cab Calloway, Fred Astaire, and Sammy Davis, Jr.

On June 25, the day Jackson died, Dr. Conrad Murray gave him the drug through an IV sometime after midnight, the official said.

The official also provided a glimpse into how the pop star was living in the weeks before he died, describing the room in which Jackson slept in his rented Beverly Hills mansion as outfitted with oxygen tanks and an IV drip.

Another of Jackson’s bedrooms was a shambles, with clothes and other items strewn about and handwritten notes stuck on the walls.

One read: ‘Children are sweet and innocent.’

The temperature upstairs was stiflingly hot when authorities arrived at the singer’s house after his death.

Gas fireplaces and the heating system were on high because Jackson always complained of feeling cold, the official said.

A porcelain girl doll wearing a dress was found on top of the covers of the bed where he slept, the official said.

Police found propofol and other drugs in the home. An IV line and three tanks of oxygen were in the room where Jackson slept, and 15 more oxygen tanks were in a security guard’s shack, the official said.”